Images of the Unseen

About the project

Perhaps the largest challenge to have confronted the European Union in recent years has been the
migration crisis. According to official data, over two million people reached the EU in 2015 and 2016,
but less than one third have received refugee status and accompanying support within the territory
of the European Union. The large numbers of asylum-seekers coming from countries where conflicts
are rife, but which do not feature highly on the list of countries currently in a state of war (such as
Afghanistan), have a much lower chance of staying in Europe.

The migration crisis has posed a fresh set of challenges to the European Union, but has also brought
to the fore divisions amongst member states, as well within them. These divisions are evident on
many intersecting levels: political, ideological and cultural. They spark conflicts not only in national
parliaments, but also in the private sphere, bitterly dividing family and former friends. This
tremendous challenge, the shocking events and images of war, the conditions in which millions of
people – millions – are living, seems without an end or a seemingly viable solution. The majority of
states are not taking effective action, eyes wide shut, painfully slow in their offers to offer effective
help.

Between 2015-2017 Omar Marques documented the faces of the migration crisis, weaving in and
out of both official and illegal camps for refugees, meeting hundreds of people affected by the war
in numerous places of apparent refuge - Serbia, Greece, Austria and Hungary. Amongst thousands of
photographs, we chose a few dozen, those which were in contrast to the familiar images of photo-
reportage. The images underwent a specific modification contrary to the principles of traditional
photo-journalism – the people in them have been erased, they are unseen. The photographs are a
striking witness to the presence of refugees, yet the refugees themselves are no longer present. In
this way, the distorted reportage transports us into a different sphere of contemplation – we are left
only with the traces of hundreds of thousands of people. The operation of “subtracting”, erasing,
camouflaging, aims to draw our attention to the absence of refugees in the heated political debate
and public discourse. Omar’s photo exhibition presents and brings to the fore the question of the
presence/absence of the millions of refugees who are in Europe, alongside us but strangely absent.

gALLERY

Year: 2017 Location: Former brick factory in the surroundings of Subotica, Serbia.

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ARTISTS

Omar Marques

Natalia Wiernik

Who is Omar Marques ?

Omar Marques is a Portuguese freelance photojournalist from the north west of Portugal.
Omar works as a freelance photojournalist for several news agencies on editorial and commercial assignments and has his own studio in Krakow, Poland.
Apart of providing news coverage around Central, Eastern Europe and Balkans, he works in personal long term projects. Since 2015, he has been working in a long term project regarding the refugee crisis in Europe.
Some of Omar pictures have been published in The Times, The New York Times, CNBC, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Paris Match, Le Point, Newsweek Poland, Peninsula Qatar, La Croix among others.
Some of his work has been exhibited in Poland, Portugal and Latvia and in 2017 the first exhibition of his project about the refugee crisis took place in Krakow, Poland on June,2017.
He has presented his work during photography workshops but also during several summer schools (including the ones organised by The Europaeum network based in Oxford, UK, Jagiellonian University in Poland and Sofia University in Bulgaria).

Website

www.omarmarquesphotography.com

Email

marques.omar@gmail.com

Mobile or Skype

+48 665 043 415 or omar.maques5

Who is Natalia Wiernik ?

Natalia Wiernik is a multimedia artist based in Krakow, Poland.
She was a student at the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (ASP) between 2008 – 2013. Since 2015, Wiernik has been pursuing her doctoral studies at the Department of Animation, Photography and Digital Media at ASP and also works there as a lecturer. She has received a number of prizes, including the Sony World Photography Awards.